Day 1

The SWIM Panama Mission Team arrived at the Charleston Airport excited, nervous and raring to go. We were delighted to have elders from the church and family members gather to encourage us and send us off in prayer. We breezed through customs and security check points and had plenty of time to eat, visit the ladies room and make last minute purchases.

The flight to Atlanta was uneventful. Some read, some slept but most chatted. There was lots of anticipation in the air. We had more time to kill in Atlanta Airport than expected since our flight was delayed for an hour. This became the mode of operation for our whole trip; hurry up and wait.

We had a nice surprise on the plane. It was Ted Green’s 53rd birthday and the flight attendants were in the partying mood. They were pleasant, joking with everyone and did a wonderful job entertaining up as well as serving us.

After a little confusion and a lot of lines at the Panama Airport we finally met Pastor Picota and his wife, Griselda along with Miguel who would serve as our guide, translator, chauffer and advisor for our entire trip. It is amazing how much luggage nine women can carry but they managed to fit all of it and all of us in two vehicles. Good thing one was a fifteen passenger van.

For many of us the drive to the hotel was our first glimpse of Panama. We arrived at the hotel at 12:30 by our watches and 11:30 according to the hotel clocks. The hotel was a Country Inn and Suites and looked exactly how they do in the States and was equipped the same also. We had a pool, exercise room (no one used it) and air conditioning, Praise Be To God! There was a Friday’s attached where we ate many meals.

Although we were dreadfully tired we held a team meeting to pray and plan our activities for the next day before retiring for the night.